NYCGuide
The Most Exciting Dinner Spots In NYC Right Now
A night out at one of these places—whether it’s for a catch-up with a friend or an impressive date night—feels overwhelmingly of the moment.
For anyone wondering which restaurants are currently hot in New York City, you've arrived at the right internet place. Many of the restaurants below are brand spanking new, but we’ve also listed older spots doing novel and noteworthy things. And, as always, we aren't recommending any of these places simply for being sceney. We’ve been to each and every one of these restaurants, and we love the food they serve.
THE SPOTS
Before there were Carbones in Vegas and Hong Kong, there was a place called Torrisi Italian Specialties on Mulberry Street. That spot closed in 2015—but with the opening of Major Food Group’s Torrisi Bar & Restaurant in Nolita, things have come full circle. This place has all the pageantry (and tough reservations) you expect from the people who brought you the Midtown duck press, and it’s in a huge space with sky-high ceilings and crushed velvet booths. The menu is mostly Italian, but some dishes—like a chopped liver with Manischewitz—take inspiration from the surrounding neighborhood.
You might only know Kwame Onwuachi from his run on Top Chef, but you’re also about to know him for being the guy who single-handedly made Lincoln Center cool again. Tatiana feels like a quiet nightclub and serves food that blends Afro-Caribbean flavors with iconic New York dishes. Think: mizuna caesar salad with Trini green seasoning and Wagyu short rib pastrami suya (the best new pastrami sandwich in the city). Just like at Torrisi, snagging a table here is tough, but we have some advice.
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New Yorkers had been anticipating the return of Superiority Burger like the release of a new Scorsese-DiCaprio flick. After an 18-month hiatus, this place is back in the old Odessa space on Avenue A with a truly unique expanded menu. We love the white sweet potato topped with chopped pickles and labneh, as well as all the desserts. The new dining room is much bigger than Superiority Burger’s old, tiny space, and it pretty much looks like the diner from “Seinfeld.” So bring three of your friends and talk about “nothing” as you eat quinoa-based veggie burgers, which are still as good as ever.
Like Superiority Burger, Mắm is back after taking a break for the fall and winter, and we couldn’t be happier about its return. This Vietnamese spot in Chinatown only operates during dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, so be sure to make a reservation by pre-ordering their weekly special. Hit up their Instagram to check what they’re serving from their ever-changing menu. You might see bún hến, snail sausage, or a clam salad. (Be sure to ask for off-menu options too.) The inside is tiny and crowded, so if the weather’s nice, opt for one of the little plastic stools on the sidewalk. They’re like the ones you see on the streets throughout Asia.
It takes guts to scrap a beloved menu that people make a reservation a month ahead to try—especially if that menu includes regional Indian specialties that are already hard to find elsewhere. That’s what the team behind Dhamaka did though. Only four dishes remain, and thankfully, one of them is the gurda kapoora (goat testicles and kidneys in a garlickly tomato sauce). Among the new dishes are smoked pork tails, lamb shank biryani, and a freshly churned butter with saffron and mixed nuts for dessert. Unlike the menu, the same colorful space that’ll cheer you up if you’re having a bad day remains.
Zhego in Woodside specializes in Bhutanese food, which isn’t exactly found on every street corner in New York. The food happens to be great too. Order the ema datsi (chili peppers smothered in cheese), cabbage-filled momos, and the spicy, garlicky beef tripe. The combination of the food and the large, scenic photos of Bhutan make you feel like you could be dining at a small restaurant in South Asia. There are only a handful of tables, and this place fills up, so get here early to avoid a wait.
Like Bhutanese cuisine, Hakka food is hard to find in NYC, and the food here is worth a special trip to Chinatown. The restaurant feels like a cross between a high-end spa and a hotel lobby, and the combination of large tables and a family-style menu make this spot a great choice for big groups. Build your order around braised pork belly with preserved vegetables, and the sweet and sour pork on ice—hot, lacquered balls of deep-fried pork with maraschino cherries on a bed of ice. There’s not another dish quite like it in the neighborhood.
After an interminable winter, the thought of eating hearty bowls of pasta outside sounds kind of perfect. If you’re nodding your head in agreement, head to this Carroll Gardens spot, which has one of our favorite backyards in the city. It has a mess of vines, little round tables covered with umbrellas, and an old parked Vespa. Martha Stewart probably hosts Sunday brunch in a very similar space on her estate. The food is back-to-basics Italian. Go for the spaghetti pomodoro that tastes like your everyday spaghetti if it went through an episode of “Rustic Rehab” on HGTV.
Mandalay Cafe is one of our favorite places to take out-of-towners who want to experience something uniquely New York without dropping the equivalent of a mortgage payment. This Burmese restaurant—located inside of the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway—only has a few tables, and the walls are lined with hard-to-find Burmese ingredients and imports. An order of tea leaf salad is non-negotiable, and we also love the cold, curried chicken and egg noodle salad.
Decades in Ridgewood is making some of NYC’s best new pizza. The room feels like a Pizza Hut that got a high-fashion glow up, and the playlist of ’80s radio hits provides just the right amount of nostalgia. Most of the tables are two tops, so this place is better for catch ups and date nights than big groups. We can’t stop thinking about the thin, crisp, fluffy, and charred crust. There’s no wrong answer when it comes to toppings, but we love the Big Cheese with added pepperoni. Save room for a slice of tiramisu layer cake at the end of your meal.
